Black Rock Mountain State Park
| Black Rock Mountain State Park | |
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View from Black Rock Mountain State Park
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| Location | Rabun County, Georgia, USA |
| Nearest city | Clayton, Georgia |
| Coordinates | 34°54′34″N 83°24′55″W / 34.90944°N 83.41528°WCoordinates: 34°54′34″N 83°24′55″W / 34.90944°N 83.41528°W |
| Area | 1,743 acres (7.05 km2; 2.72 sq mi) |
| Governing body | Georgia State Park |
Black Rock Mountain State Park is a 1,743 acre (7.03 km²) Georgia state park located west of Mountain City in Rabun County, Georgia. It is named after its sheer cliffs of dark-colored biotite gneiss in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Located astride the Eastern Continental Divide at an elevation of 3,640 feet (1,109 m), the park provides many scenic overlooks and 80 mile (130 km) vistas of the southern Appalachian Mountains. On a clear day, four states are visible: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In addition to Black Rock Mountain itself, the park includes four other peaks over 3,000 feet (910 m) in elevation, making it the highest state park in Georgia.
The park is closed during the late fall and winter (December 1 until March 15).
Most of the rock outcrops found throughout the park are made of biotite gneiss, a metamorphic rock that underlies a large portion of the Georgia Blue Ridge. Black Rock Mountain State Park was established in 1952 and originally consisted of 1,000 acres (4 km²). Long before the Park was established, Rabun County native John V. Arrendale began assembling the area that would later become the Park, making his first 70-acre (280,000 m2) purchase in 1938. Numerous purchases have added to the Park's area since it was established in 1952, including 301 acres (1.2 km²) added in 1995 with funding received from then-Governor Zell Miller's Preservation 2000 land acquisition program. Several smaller acquisitions have added acreage to the park's southwest corner since then.
There are five hiking trails through lush forests, alongside cascading mountain streams and around 17 acre (69,000 m²) Black Rock Lake. The 2.2-mile (3.5 km) Tennessee Rock Trail crosses Black Rock Mountain's cool north slope before climbing across the mountain's summit and following the Eastern Continental Divide. From the trail's namesake feature - Tennessee Rock itself - hikers enjoy vistas that extend northward into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, including Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee.
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Wikipedia